


Gauntlet

by Alethia



Series: Starting to Finish [11]
Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: Developing Relationship, Exes, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-13
Updated: 2005-06-13
Packaged: 2018-01-14 05:54:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1255378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alethia/pseuds/Alethia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was a promise, a letter of intent, a written declaration and <i>this</i>, finally, <i>this</i> could not be ignored. It wasn’t on vacation and it wasn’t in another ecosystem and it wasn’t motivated by grief or pain or any other excuse she might possibly come up with.</p>
<p>This was a finish. And a start.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gauntlet

**Author's Note:**

> References events in 2.02 "Dead Zone." Originally posted on LJ [here](http://alethialia.livejournal.com/140877.html).

Someone was in his parking spot.

Okay, technically it wasn't really _his_ , but it was where he always parked his car since it was strategically close to Calleigh’s apartment and everything and dammit, it was his.

And Calleigh had gone very suspiciously quiet beside him.

Eric parked _next_ to his parking spot and turned to see her peering out the window of his car, totally fixated on whatever she was looking at.

Obviously Eric had to look, too. 

Vague shape, sitting on the stairs, low light of night and an annoying column partially obscuring Eric’s view.

Calleigh didn’t seem to be having any recognition trouble, though. She sighed audibly…which was kind of a huge deal, actually. Calleigh wasn’t much one for public displays of anything, really, and she especially kept her more negative feelings to herself. Unless she was gonna rip you a new one and then she did it simply, directly, and devastatingly. 

Those—were not fun times. Eric chose not to think too hard about those.

Which led him back to the misshapen lump in Calleigh’s stairwell and her apparently sharing kinda mood.

Obviously, Eric had to ask.

“So, uh, were you expecting anyone?” Not out of the realm of possibility. After all, Eric didn’t know _everything_ about Calleigh. It wasn’t like he sat outside her apartment in his car watching her or anything. And she didn’t volunteer much. What he did know he’d gotten by sheer force of will and what some might call nagging but which he just preferred to think of as good investigative skills.

They weren’t that different.

“No.” It fell between them, a rock, an anvil, another heavy thing. It meant Calleigh was unhappy and _dammit_ they’d just gotten to a good place, a happy place, a place where closeness and not having to tiptoe around her and sex—good God it’d been a while—seemed not out of the realm of possibility.

He didn’t even know who was lurking in the shadows of Calleigh’s building and already he wanted to hurt the person.

Lurking. Calleigh’s building.

And with that every single protective instinct went up—he really couldn’t help it—and there was no way in hell he was letting her go out and face…whoever, alone. No. Way. And Calleigh was just gonna have to deal.

Already getting out of the car, Eric shoved open his door and followed, grabbing one of her bags as a pretense and totally ignoring her annoyed look. She didn’t stop, though, or comment, which was new, so maybe she really was starting to accept his presence? Maybe a little?

The crumbs he’d beg for these days.

The shape moved, stood, and resolved into a figure. A very male figure. A very _familiar_ male figure.

Well, that was just great. He brings Calleigh home, maybe hoping for a little more than a terse “goodnight” and Calleigh’s ever-present ex just happened to be waiting. Only to him. These things only happened to him.

Come tomorrow, he’d find out this had all been a dream. Granted, a very involved, detailed, enthralling dream. But a dream nonetheless and man, if this was going to end up a dream, he’d like to get to the good part.

And that part definitely didn’t involve Hagen.

“Calleigh,” Hagen said, sounding rough and tired and…something. He’d seemed more beaten down lately and Eric did feel for him, but there was just that little issue of Hagen sniffing around Calleigh whenever something happened. It got Eric all competitive and jealous and he _hated_ being like that.

“John,” she acknowledged, and only then did it hit the man that Calleigh wasn’t alone, not that it seemed to make much of a dent. He nodded to Eric, but was all about Calleigh.

“John, what are you doing here? It’s late. How long have you been waiting?”

“I called Wolfe and he told me when your plane would be getting in. I haven’t been here long.” Ryan. It figured. He needed to make a note to kill the new kid at the next available opportunity.

And he was speaking. Before thinking, which tended not to be a good idea: “Yeah, well, we’ve been traveling for a while so you might wanna come back when we haven’t been breathing recirculated air in a sardine can for a few hours.” And…whoa. That was a bit much, and Calleigh’s look said exactly that, but hell. It wasn’t like Eric could do anything about it.

Not to mention the fact that it was _true_.

“I—I just wanted to see you,” Hagen said, making eyes at Calleigh and ignoring Eric’s presence like a pro. “To talk,” he amended hastily, reading Calleigh better than most. Eric was only mildly impressed since everyone in this conversation—even if Hagen was ignoring him—knew what crap that was.

“You could have called,” Calleigh said, ever kind. “But John, it’s late. I’m tired. Can we talk tomorrow? Maybe have lunch?”

Eric was getting very good at not displaying his emotions. Really, he was. He could give a Zen master a run for his money. It was totally true, too, considering all Eric wanted to do was throw something at the guy, preferably something heavy and that would hurt. Maybe Calleigh’s bag.

But she’d be mad, so maybe not. But…something.

Hagen looked forlorn, but nodded anyway—not that there was anything else he could do. When Calleigh laid down the law you obeyed or you quickly found yourself on her bad side. And that wasn’t a very fun place to be.

“Call me?” Hagen asked, and oh, was that a last dig, detective? Eric narrowed his eyes. Slightly.

“You know it. See you tomorrow, John.” Effectively dismissed, and with a bright, shiny smile no less, she turned to the stairs, resolutely ignoring Eric as he trailed after her, shooting suspicious glances at Hagen’s back. There was something going on there and it was more than just some lusting after a girl. Hagen looked…something. At the end of a rope, maybe.

He better not think he was gonna get Calleigh to play the part of a lifeline.

Calleigh was silent—and oh, she was _mad_ —just up until she softly shut her door and rounded on him. “Eric…”

“I know. I behaved badly. I was a jerk and I have no right to order Hagen around because it’s your life. Did I cover everything?”

“Since you’re so well-informed as to what I’m going to say, maybe you can tell me why I think you just did that.”

Eric stubbornly stayed quiet and set her bag down on one of her end tables.

“No insight? Such a shame. And you were doing so well.” Ouch. Scorn from Calleigh and that was enough to flay his skin raw, painful in the extreme. Time to fall back on the tried and true, then.

“I’m sorry.”

“I believe you. I just wish you’d believe me.” At his raised eyebrow she continued. “It’s over with Hagen. Finished. Done. Even if he asked me to marry him I’d send him on his way. So stop acting like I’m going to up and run off with him the next time he’s in my presence.”

The thought had never— “You don’t think he’s going to propose, do you?” Playing it up, but…

Calleigh just rolled her eyes. “Eric, sometimes you’re impossible.”

“It wouldn’t be unprecedented. A last ditch effort to get you back.”

“When did I lose all say in this?” she asked the air, getting really annoyed now. “And Eric, I have to say, the jealous routine is getting old. I make my own choices. I’ve made my choice.”

Ah-ha! Got her.

Eric looked her dead in the eye, all seriousness: “Have you?”

She visibly clicked…and paled.

“So is that what this has been about, then?” she asked, almost a whisper, like her words would disturb the room or the air or the tentative peace between them.

He shrugged and looked away, hands going to his pockets, safe and nonchalant and there they wouldn’t give away any nervous wringing.

“Eric…”

“It just seems—”

“Do you think I take things lightly?”

“I know you don’t. But there’s a part of you that you never let me see, either,” he said softly. He didn’t want to injure her, but it was true. She kept space, distance, away from him, and they’d been dancing around this for a really long time.

“We _work_ together,” she said sharply. “There are _rules_.”

“And H wouldn’t care, so long as we did our jobs. H knows. He wasn’t exactly yelling on the phone there. Not that H ever yells. Wouldn’t work with his syntax.”

The joke totally breezed by her. “And what’s to say he won’t express his displeasure the moment we walk into work tomorrow?”

Eric pinned her with his gaze. “He’s know for a while. And you’re just making excuses.”

“What’s a while?” she asked, almost breathless, like this was somehow _new_. And that convinced him, as if he needed it, that she’d been underestimating his seriousness. Of course she had been. He was Eric and therefore he was fun, but unreliable and not to be taken with such weight, in the end.

He shrugged again, unrepentant, and wouldn’t let her look away, wouldn’t let her laugh it off or dismiss it or do anything else she normally would have—was probably planning to—because this time it would be _different_.

Calleigh looked—like she didn’t quite know what to say. At least she was taking him seriously. That was something.

“And I’m not making excuses,” she said, only a little late.

His scoff might have been a bit too forceful; her walls immediately went up, all that uncertainty covered in an instant.

“I’m not. I’m _thinking_. I’m being logical.”

“You’re avoiding. You’re letting your brain convince you it’s a bad idea because you don’t want to face the alternative.” And oooh, that might have been a little too much honesty there, what with the way Calleigh’s mouth opened…and closed tight, lips pressing in a thin line that always signaled bad things to come.

Usually involving no physical or emotional contact of any kind.

“One wonders why you’d even bother considering how much work it all is.”

“You’re worth it.” In the grand scheme of things, Eric really wondered how many people had told her that, how many people had put her first. He knew without a doubt that her parents hadn’t; they were too screwed up themselves.

He could see the cracks surface, even before the small sigh, the shake of her head that was nothing about negation. “Eric…”

He didn’t even think; he was just _there_ , reaching out and touching a light finger to her cheekbone, tracing softly, no pressure. “It won’t go away,” he said tightly, “Even if you might want it to.”

Her eyes flicked back to focus on him again, instead of his highly interesting shoulder. “I don’t want that,” she said finally, green eyes almost dark now, barely hiding anything anymore. But still, that last piece was obscured from him, maybe always would be.

Eric was a little bit okay with that, so long as she let go of the much bigger part, that part maybe a handful of people had seen in her life.

“Good to know,” he said with a careful smile, finally grasping hold of her chin to tilt her head up, close in for a slow kiss, giving her every opportunity to pull away, she taking none of them.

Progress, that, and Eric would have taken a moment to be self-satisfied if Calleigh weren’t melting against him, lips warm and responsive and the kiss slow, so slow, like none of them had been, all heat and passion arcing between them.

This was a promise, a letter of intent, a written declaration and _this_ , finally, _this_ could not be ignored. It wasn’t on vacation and it wasn’t in another ecosystem and it wasn’t motivated by grief or pain or any other excuse she might possibly come up with.

Calleigh made that sound, that little one in the back of her throat, and clutched at his shoulders, mouth opening in invitation and he could take it, could make it deeper and take them higher and do all the things he’d been dreaming about for what seemed like an eternity of agony.

Or he could press his lips to hers again and slowly pull away, hand still cupping her jaw, thumb caressing her chin. Couldn’t resist, leaned in one more time, and she fell into it eagerly, hands flexing against him, lips catching his and marking her insistence.

Eric pulled back again and grinned, grinned despite the fact that he was going to leave her here and again delay the inevitable.

But this time would be different because this time he had a clear victory, a clear meeting of the minds, and he’d made himself abundantly clear about what he wanted. It just—wasn’t the night for it, not with the specter of Hagen hanging around, not with H’s call and their separation from their real environment. He wasn’t going to let her think it could just stay at the conference, that she could just ignore it and refuse to take it back to work with them.

That wasn’t the game now. He’d made sure of it.

Walking away was, well, almost harder than anything. A flash of a coffin lowered into the ground passed by and he knew ‘hard’ was always going to have extra-special meaning. But walking away from what he wanted was up there, especially when it was offered so freely.

Maybe so freely and maybe not. He wasn’t taking a chance; he didn’t with her. And in the end, he was walking away from what he wanted to get what he wanted, so it all worked out in some way.

He thought about all of this as he said his goodbyes, saw the question she wouldn’t ask and kissed it softly away. Thought about it as he walked down stairs, to his car, only to abruptly stop.

There was a car in his parking space. Still.

Hagen cleared his throat then, drawing Eric’s attention, every muscle in his body on alert, his pulse already increasing. Danger here, and he could feel it even if he couldn’t understand it.

“Hagen. I thought you left, man.” Trying to inject some levity in it and probably failing miserably.

“I thought you were gonna do the same thing. You were up there for a long time, Delko.” Definitely failing miserably. Well, if he wanted to play it like that…

“What’s your point?” he asked, trying not to get defensive or to let himself lift to the balls of his feet like he really, really wanted to.

Hagen walked out of the shadows, out under a light so Eric could see him clearly again. The man just looked haggard, like something was killing him. Calleigh? Was this what would have happened to Eric had he not taken the time to worm his way in before pushing the issue?

But he couldn’t help but think it felt like _more_ than that somehow.

“What’s going on with you two, Delko? I think I have a right to know.”

“I think you don’t. And it’s none of your business.”

“What, she won’t give me another chance because she’s already moved on? Is that it? Why she won’t return my calls?”

“That’s between you and Calleigh.”

“Not if you’re the reason. Then it’s between you and me.”

Eric rolled his eyes. He was so not getting into a pissing contest, especially not when the elation was just starting to set in, the realization that yes, he just _did_ that. It was making him feel like he could float home, screw the car, and Hagen was not gonna piss all over his happy bubble.

“Go home, Hagen. You look like crap, man.”

Eric moved to get into his car and Hagen was suddenly _there_ , leaning in close, definitely threatening and it made all sorts of alarms go off in Eric’s head. “Hagen, what the hell? Watch it!” One last attempt at lightness and putting this behind them. If he didn’t take it, Eric had no problem dropping the guy. Even if Calleigh would be pissed.

“No, you watch it. I don’t think you know how serious I am, Delko.”

“I think you seriously need to get a grip.”

“I had Calleigh before you and I am not letting her go this easily.”

“Yeah, well, you should have thought of that before you went and told H about the harpoon. I have to be getting home now so if you don’t mind,” he said pointedly, expressing with eyes, voice, and posture just how _done_ he was with this conversation.

Hagen backed away, but crossed his arms and glared. “I’m serious. I need her and you can’t get in the way.”

Eric just shook his head and walked away, muttering, “Yeah, you need something,” under his breath.

He’d always known Hagen and Calleigh weren’t a good fit. And that wasn’t just Eric’s insistence that he and Calleigh were even better; it was a friend speaking.

But that—that was just creepy. He’d have to keep his eye on Hagen more. He didn’t like that the man was standing in the dark under Calleigh’s apartment. That spoke too much of stalkerish tendencies and that story never ended well.

God, but Calleigh could pick them. He just hoped he’d be strong enough, sure enough, so that he didn’t end up the same as the others.

***

Fin. Feedback is adored.


End file.
